National suicide

How long is the Netherlands going to allow itself to be held hostage to the Muslim fanatics in its midst?

The latest outrage: The beating of gay journalist Chris Crain, who had the temerity to walk down the street holding hands with his boyfriend.

As for the cops finding the guys who beat up Chris Crain: I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they haven’t lifted a finger. They probably thought he was nuts for confronting the guys. The authorities’ traditional policy is: keep your head down and don’t provoke anybody. In January, two schoolboys in IJsselstein were ordered to remove Dutch flag patches from their backpacks because Moroccan students might consider them provocative. It turned out this flag ban is officially in force at many schools. Meanwhile Muslim kids have pictures of van Gogh's murderer on their lunchboxes because they consider him a hero, and nobody dares tell them to remove those pictures. In a recent article, a teacher at a school in Amsterdam said that a decade ago, ten-year-old Muslim kids were saying, 'We Moroccans are going to take over the Netherlands'; now five-year-olds who can hardly write are scrawling 'Fuck you Netherlands' on scraps of paper.

That's Bruce Bawer in an email to Andrew Sullivan. Bawer worries that "the Dutch liberal establishment’s unwillingness to confront Muslim bigotry would feed the rise of anti-Muslim neo-fascism, resulting in a society split between two extreme rights – one Muslim and one non-Muslim." He's right. Unless the rest of Dutch society stops worrying about appearing intolerant and starts condemning and prosecuting these thugs that's likely to happen.

And how about a word of condemnation from those Muslim groups who complain they are being misrepresented as terrorists?